


Along for the Ride

by Gamerright



Series: Fruitful-verse [3]
Category: Hetalia: Axis Powers
Genre: Alternate Universe - Human, Bad Touch Trio | Bad Friend Trio, Gen, Middle schoolers, Searching, mini adventure
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-01-02
Updated: 2020-01-02
Packaged: 2021-02-27 16:14:20
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 2
Words: 2,536
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/22079776
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Gamerright/pseuds/Gamerright
Summary: Three children, each on a search, gather together at a train station.One is searching for a pair of neglectful parents, not her own, but of a new sibling she doesn’t want. She refuses to have her perfect life ruined by this new addition.Another is looking for an older sibling who never returned. In the midst of forgetfulness, he wants to bring back the sibling he barely knew.The last is looking for two people, an overbearing mother and a small child. She will do anything to bring her brother back, no matter what.
Series: Fruitful-verse [3]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1869925
Kudos: 4





	1. Prologue

“Let’s go find them.”

On the side of the school building, out of the way of prying teacher eyes, crouched three children.

“I don’t think that’s a good idea…” the golden haired girl said leaning slightly to the right. She was struggling to hold her crouching position in her wedge sandals.

“Why not?” the other girl with light, almost white, blond hair replied. She had a stick in her hand and was drawing small figures into the ground.

“We don’t even know where they are! And what about our parents? They wouldn’t let us leave.” the golden haired girl replied. 

“We can sneak out,” the third child piped up. Unlike the other two children he had dark hair and a bright smile on his face. “They don’t have to know. My mamá won’t even know i’m gone!”

“Antonio!” the golden girl cried. “You don’t actually want to do this, do you?”

“Why not?” the boy, Antonio, replied. “Santiago might be in trouble!”

“Come on, princess,” the light blond girl said. She nudged the other girl. “You want to find… what was her name again? Luchy?”

“Lucille.” ‘princess’ replied. She finally gave up crouching and spread her jacket over the ground underneath her. She winced as she sat down.

“Yeah!” the light blond girl replied. “You want to find her real parents, right, Fran? Come with us~”

Fran or Francine looked at the ground.

“I don’t know…” Fran looked back up. “Where would we go?  Maman told me she came from Bradbury…”

“And Santiago disappeared in Arlington!” Antonio said.

“See!” the other girl exclaimed. “We already have places to search.”

“And what about you, Marie? You don’t know where your mother took Ludwig. How are you going to find him?” Fran questioned.

Marie frowned.

“It doesn’t matter,” she said. Marie stood. “Good, so everyone’s coming!”

“I never agreed to this!” Fran stood and pointed a painted finger at Marie. “Marie! You can’t just up and leave your father and not tell him where you’re going!”

“I’m going to bring Ludwig back!” Marie replied, balling her hands up at her sides. “I’m going to bring him home and  _ Vater _ will be happy. Right now, he doesn’t need to know.”

Marie pulled up her hood and turned the corner of the building saying, “You don’t have to come along if you don’t want to. See how  _ perfect  _ your life is with the new  _ beautiful baby _ .”

Antonio walked past Fran and picked up her coat. He gently dusted it off and covered her shoulders with it.

“Everything will be fine~” Antonio said. With his same wide, happy smile, he told her, “I know you’re afraid, but I really want you to come with us.”

And then he disappeared around the corner.

Fran readjusted her coat and followed the two around the building. Other teens in her class was playing basketball at the basketball court or lounging on the sidewalk. 

On one side of the basketball court, Marie held a ball. She was sizing up her opponent and as she went for a shot, the ball was snatched from her. Antonio ran down the court and scored. Turning around, Antonio gave Marie a bright grin, that Marie scowled at.

Fran was going. She knew she had to, if only to keep her friends out of trouble.


	2. Chapter 1: Two Weeks Earlier

“It’s too hoott.”

“Then take off your jacket.”

“I don’t wannaa~”

Francine rolled her eyes. “Then don’t complain that you’re hot if you don’t want to get cool.”

“I do want to!” Marie protested. She rolled onto her side, bits of grass sticking to her jacket. “I’m just too lazy to.”

Francine was used to the girl complaining, as well as her stubbornness. She knew if the girl truly didn’t want to move, she wasn’t going to, even at the risk of a heatstroke.

Francine stood and grabbed a bowl from the kitchen. Filing it halfway with water, she walked back outside to the front lawn where her friend was lounging in the sun. 

Standing a feet or two away from the girl, Francine threw the water onto Marie.

“Ppppff- ack!” Marie sputtered, lurching. She wiped her face. “Francine!”

Francine giggled and jumped away as her friend reached out for her.

“Come back!” Marie shouted, rubbing her eyes.

“What’s wrong?” Francine asked, taking a hesitant step forward. She was still wary of her friend and didn’t want her own clothes to get wet.

“You almost got water in my eyes.” Marie closed one eye. “I should probably take my contacts out.”

“Oh…” Francine helped her friend to the bathroom. She watched as Marie took out her bright red contacts, revealing baby blue eyes underneath. Marie put them in her contacts container and quickly cleaned them. 

Marie then scooped some water into her hands and tossed it at Francine.

“Hey!” Francine looked down at her sundress. “My dress! You wet my dress!”

“You threw water on me first!” Marie replied. A dark smirk appeared on her face. “If it was a war you wanted, it’s a war you’ll  _ get! _ ”

Francine turned and ran down the hall, screaming all the way,“I swear to you Marie Beilschmidt if you put one drop of water on my hair i’ll-” 

“You’ll do what, Princess?” Marie materialized in front of her.

Francine glared at the girl and the cup of water she held. Marie’s hair was flat against her skull where the water had splashed on her. Francine was dismayed at the sight, but focused herself on the task at hand.

“Marie…”

“What will you do~?” Marie sang, a wild grin on her face. Her feet were spread apart in anticipation of a chase. “You can’t escape, 

_ Prinzessin _ ~”

Francine looked around at the hallway they were in. She couldn’t run back the way she came, Marie could easily douse her. She couldn’t run past Marie, the other girl was much more athletic than her and there were no nearby rooms she could run to.

Francine would have to resort to drastic measures. She gave her friend a sly smile.

“If you pour water on me…” Francine waited a beat, watching as her friend’s face morphed from deviousness, to confusion, to impatience. “I’ll tell you-know-who what you think of him~”

Marie’s pale face immediately adopted a pink blush. 

“You wouldn't dare,” Marie hissed.

“I won’t,” Francine straightened. “As long as you don’t pour water on me.”

It was a fair compromise, one that Francine was sure would work. She forgot, however, that her friend hated being manipulated.

“What if I told your you-know-who about  _ your _ crush, hm?” Marie said. 

“What!? You can’t do that!” Francine shouted.

“Why not?” Marie narrowed her eyes as a smirk formed on her lips. “You were about to blackmail me.”

Francine took a step towards Marie.

“Marie…!” 

Before Francine could take another step, Marie turned around, spilling water that Francine would have to clean up later, and ran down the opposite hallway. Francine wasn’t far behind.

“Marie!” Francine shouted. Breathy giggles answered her. “Get back here!”

For once, Francine wished her house was smaller. When she was younger, she was happy for the spacious houses her family owned. She had enough room to play and explore. She also had enough room for her various shoes and outfits.

In one of the hallways near the kitchen, Francine lost Marie. Assuming that the girl was looking for a phone, Francine ran to where she knew her parents kept a house phone on the wall of the dining room.

Stepping into the dining room, Francine saw no one there. She checked under the tables, just in case her friend decided to launch a surprise attack, but found no one.

Where could she have gone? Marie couldn’t have ran out the door.  _ His _ house is too far away from here to be able to reach. So she must still be in the house. The other phones in the house were more like walkie talkies so that the servants could call different parts of the house, but…

Francine did a complete 180 and ran for the staircase. Taking the steps two at a time, she reached the top with a breathy huff. Francine could hear Marie greet someone in a room down the hall.

“What’s up, Tonio?”

Francine darted down the hall and turned into the bedroom. Marie turned to her, large smirk on her face, that quickly changed when she saw Francine dashing towards her. Marie dropped the phone, taking a step back, but didn’t move in time as Francine tackled her to the ground.

With her heart beating so hard, she could feel it in her fingertips, Francine stood, ignoring the pain in her sides, and answered the phone. 

“Hello? Marie?” the voice on the other side of the phone asked.

Francine cleared her throat.

“No,” Francine’s voice cracked. “I-it’s Francine.”

“Oh, Fran!” Francine could feel the happiness radiating from the boy on the other end. It made her feel warm. “It’s nice to hear from you!”

“Yeah,” Francine replied, dumbly. She shook her head. “I’m glad to hear from you too.”

“Was that Marie, earlier?”

“Oh!” Francine turned to look at her friend. She felt guilty about tackling her, but when she saw Marie’s eyes alight with glee, covering her mouth to stifle her laughter, Francine felt the guilt wash away. “Yes. That was her. You know how she is.”

“Yes,” Antonio laughed. Marie glared. “She is something else.”

“Yeah…” 

“So what did you two want? Not to be rude, but I’m in the middle of helping  _ mamá _ cook.”

“Oh… we…” Francine’s eyes darted around in panic.

“We wanted to invite you to a picnic.” Marie said. She stood next to Francine and leaned over to the phone. “ _ Vati _ said we’re having a picnic tomorrow at the lake. He wanted me to invite you and your family to join us.”

“A picnic?” The room was quiet for a moment as both girls held their breath. “Sure. I’ll ask  _ mamá  _ if we can go.”

“Good.” Francine silently sighed. He believed them.

“ _ ¡Adiós! _ ”

“ _ Au revoir _ .”

“ _ Bis später~” _

Francine hung up the phone. She looked over at Marie. After a moment, they burst out in laughter.

“You dummy!” Francine giggled. “I didn’t think you would actually  _ call  _ him.”

“Of course I would!” Marie replied. “I wanted to scare you. I wasn’t going to actually tell him. He’d laugh at me!”

“He would probably think you were lying. You have a bad habit of that.”

“I lie for good causes, like just now! He would have known we were up to something if you stood there stuttering any longer.”

“I was not stuttering!” Francine said, indignantly. “Besides, he couldn’t have known. He was only on the phone for less than a minute.”

“Yeah you were,” Marie slid down to the floor. “You stuttered in just about every sentence! It’s a wonder Toni understood you.”

“I did not!”

“Did too~”

“Did not!”

“Would you like me to prove it?” Marie pointed up at a camera on the night table. Francine didn’t reply. “Huh!?”

“No.” Francine sighed. She sat next to her friend.

“Are you okay?” Marie asked.

“I’m fine,” Francine carefully laid her head on Marie’s shoulder. “I’m sorry that I tackled you.”

Francine felt Marie shake as she laughed.

“It’s fine. That took balls, Fran. Just don’t do it again.”

Francine lightly elbowed Marie in the side.

“Right... And I’m sorry that I scared you. And that I splashed water on your dress.”

“Apology accepted,” Francine said, smiling. “Was the picnic thing true? Is your father having one tomorrow?”

“Not… exactly.”

Francine tilted her head to look up at her friend. Marie’s face was blank, but Francine had gotten better at reading her eyes over the past year of their friendship. She found it amusing that Marie always had a tough exterior on when they went to school, but her friend’s eyes, the thing she used to scare her ‘victims,’ were the most expressive part about her.

“What’s wrong?” Francine asked.

Marie pinched her lips.

“Is it…” Francine tried to think of something that really bothered Marie. “A school function?”

Marie shook her head.

“Were you invited to a party by the Kirklands again?” Shake. “Did Daniel talk to you again?” A look of disgust, then a shake. “Is it your other family?” When Marie didn’t move, Francine knew she got it right. “It’s your mother then.”

“She’s coming down here for a ‘visit,’” Francine could hear the quotes. “ _ Vati _ said she should be arriving today.”

“Oh,” Francine said. “Well, that’s good.”

“Good!?” Marie jerked her shoulder away. “How is that good! She-”

“Marie!” Francine interrupted. Marie continued a rant Francine had heard many times before. “Marie!  _ Marie! _ ”

Marie finally stopped. Her pale face was flushed, but she listened.

“It’s good,” Francine said slowly. “Because she will most likely bring Ludwig.”

Marie’s eyes lit up. “She probably will!” Marie smiled.

“Are you okay?” Francine watched as Marie tugged where her hood would be. It was a nervous tick that Francine hoped Marie would eventually drop.

Marie nodded.

Before Francine could push her friend to tell her what was wrong (and maybe scold her about lying), her mother stepped into the bedroom.

“Fran, dear. Marie. Lunch is ready in the garden. Wash your hands and go eat.” Her mother was fashionably dressed as usual, wearing one of the skirts made by her father. Mother had earphones around her neck and had yet to apply her makeup. The dark rings under her eyes showed clearly in contrast to her pale skin.

Her mother and father had been acting strange lately. Maman seemed to get no sleep, and Papa is gone much more often than usual. The room she and Marie had been in earlier had been the final push for Francine’s suspicions. 

The room almost looked like a nursery, but she knew her mother wasn’t pregnant. What was going on then?

Francine shook her head. Her father had assured her that everything would be explained with time. She trusted him, so she’d leave the issue be. For now.

“Yes, ma’am,” the girls said. 

Marie and Francine quickly washed their hands and hurriedly made their way to the garden.

Francine was used to the array of food prepared by her chef, but Marie still wasn’t. It amused her to see the girl so amazed by the assortment of food.

“Hey Marie,” Francine said once she had finished her plate.

“Yea-hf?” 

Francine scrunched up her nose in disgust.

“Finish eating.” Marie laughed, but quickly finished her food. “What about the picnic?”

“We’re supposed to be having lunch tomorrow at the park. I can just tell  _ Vati _ that I invited Antonio and his family for lunch!”

“Marie.” Francine gave her friend a look. “You can’t just invite people to things like that!”

Marie waved a hand. “It’s fine~”

“No, it is not fine! I’m supposed to be there too. What are you going to tell him?”

“I’ll figure it out.”

Francine didn’t reply. Her friend was stubborn all right, but reliable. Even if the picnic idea didn’t work out, she knew her friend would come up with something else as a cover.

That’s the type of friend she was. Francine was grateful for her, she really was.


End file.
